Pen Pals- Scotland to Germany

I - Why Don't We Text?

"HEY EVERYONE! POST IS HERE!" Lukas Pardo shouted.

"COMING LUKA!" Lírica closed her music folder and for up from her piano stool. She left the practice room and rushed downstairs. She jumped off the last two steps and landed in front of her brother.

"Anything for me?" She panted.

"Probably." Luka said as he flicked through the two dozen letters in his hands as Lírica tried to catch her breath.

Luka sighed and looked up from the letters. "You know you shouldn't run around like that. All you'll do is land yourself in the hospital again." He scolded as he continued to flick through the letters. Lírica rolled her eyes at her brother.

"Don't you role your eyes at me." Luka sighed. Lírica flashed him a look of confusion. "I've known you for about 12 years now Lee, I know exactly how you react to pretty much everything anyone says." Luka laughed.

"Quit acting like you're older than me!" Lírica playfully smacked his arm.

"Lírica-Zafiro Tatiana Rios, I am older than you." Luka chuckled as he handed his sister three letters.

Lírica rolled her eyes as she started heading up the stairs. After two steps she stopped and looked over her shoulder. "You're only older than me by a month, I'm smarter than you by about fifty IQ points." She grinned as she turned and ran back up the stairs.

Luka sighed at his sister. "She's insane."

"DOESN'T MEAN MUCH COMING FROM YOU!" She shouted as her door slammed shut.

Luka rolled his eyes and walked through to the living room. "HEY! DID NO ONE ELSE HEAR ME WHEN I SAID THE POST IS HERE?!" He yelled, waving the letters in the air.

He waited five more minutes before he gave up. "Fuck it." He threw the letters in the air before leaving the room.

Lírica sat down on her bed and tore open the first envelope, the one that the address had been handwritten on. She pulled out the lined paper and unfolded it. She began reading it.

Dear Lee,
                  Thanks for your last letter. My studies are going great, work is amazing and I'm doing pretty good. Sorry to hear about your boss. He sounds like a.... How do you say it in English? A dickhead? Something like that? Haha.

Oh yeah. He really was a dickhead. Ugh. Lírica thought.

Anyway, hope you find a new job soon, and I hope your next boss isn't anything like the last.
How's your family? Hope everyone's fine. My family is found pretty good, my sister just got engaged which means it's time to torture the poor the guy with over protective brother shit! Which I'm sure you'll know all about! Haha.

Damn right I do, she thought. Lírica sighed remembering all the times her brothers had been over protective.

Anyway, hope you're ok.

Yours sincerely Artem

P.S- why don't we text or email each other? Here's my email address and phone number.

🐼

Lírica giggled at the way he always signed his letters with a doodle of a panda.

She got up and sat down at her desk and began writing her reply.

After she was done, she sealed it in an envelope and wrote Artem's address on the front. She then turned her attention to the other letter. In the top corner was the NHS logo and a warning.

Private and Confidential

"Shit....."

"ARTEM! FOR THE THIRD AND FINAL TIME, GET YOUR GEEKY BUTT DOWN HERE AND TAKE THE DMAN LETTER BEFORE I RIP IT TO SHREDS!" Annika Rothenberg shouted.

Artem quickly put down the phone he was tinkering with and ran down the stairs and snatched the letter from his sisters hands.

"No need to snatch." She sighed as she walked off.

"Shut up." Artem snapped as he ran back upstairs. He sat down on his bed and tore open the letter.

Querido Artem,

Artem chuckled at the Spanish. She always does that. She swaps out a word or two in a sentence for the Spanish version. When they were in school and having their letters read over by the teachers, she used to swear in Spanish and leave a little note about google translate.

I'm doing pretty good. My family's as weird as ever, I'm still a human beach ball (the struggles of being 5"3 in a family of 15, the second shortest of which being 5"7 and the tallest being 7"3!). Haha!

Artem laughed at this. She often complained about being thrown about by her siblings as if she were a beach ball.

Tell your sister I said congrats! And also tell her I feel sorry for her, but hey, could be worse, she could have eight older brothers to be over protective!

True, Artem thought.

But yeah. I'm happy to be rid of my old joss. Quitting was the best thing I've done in years! So glad I don't have to deal with that impulsive hijo de puta!

Artem quickly grabbed his phone and googled Spanish to English (cause putting it into German didn't always turn out the way Lírica had expected) and typed in the phrase. He almost burst out laughing when the results came up.

Anyway, thanks for asking if I'm ok. Hope you are, and hope everything continues to be great for you.

Sincerely Lírica

P.S, that sounds like a way better idea! We won't have to wait about a week to talk, and we can have a normal conversation for once, haha! Here's my number and email.

🦋

Artem chuckled when he saw the bottom of the paper. She always signals the end of her letters with a little butterfly that she shaded bright blue.

He put down the paper and picked up his phone. He typed in the number and added it as a contact.

Should I text? Should I wait for her to text first? Damn why is this so hard...... he thought.